CTEL – Teaching The Outsiders (and more)

CTEL, testing

Test-Taking Tip

mrC

As my loyal readers may remember, I passed the dreaded CTEL test last June. Having a CLAD certificate (which passing the CTEL gives you) is the only way to remain employed as a teacher in California, and a lot of teachers are going through a lot of stress these days as the deadline for passing […]

CTEL, Follow up, Me, police

Friday Follow-Ups

mrC

Just some follow-up on some things I noticed I’ve left hanging. *Still haven’t heard from the DA about my possible vandalism charge. Wait…I never finished that story, did I? (Here’s the beginning of the story.) After the cop came to the school and didn’t get to talk to me, he came to my house the […]

CTEL, KBAR, Mailbag, Tips

Mailbag: The Holy Trinity

mrC

Sr. Enda (my seventh grade teacher) would be appalled that I used the title phrase outside the context of the Catholic Church. But in my seventh grade language arts classroom, my Holy Trinity consists of Father Vocabulary, Son KBAR (reading/writing), and the Holy Spirit of grammar/mechanics. (My ninth grade English teacher referred to the last […]

CTEL, Me

CKD

mrC

Yesterday morning I woke up to the following message written on the bathroom mirror: “Crush, kill, destroy – in his sleep.” Now let’s all date ourselves, and try to remember where we have heard the phrase “crush, kill, destroy” before. No cheating by Googling (or Binging – but that sounds loud). I’ll give you a […]

CLAD, CTEL, Me

CTEL in SF Part III

mrC

(Ok. I’m lagging. It IS summer after all. But I told myself I’d try to stay in the groove for the summer, and post (kinda) regularly; there are people who teach on a different schedule, and right now aren’t able to go camping for a week at beautiful Refugio Beach. And they might like some […]

CTEL, Homeless, Me, San Francisco

CTEL Purgatory (Also: The Homeless as Performance Art)

mrC

“It’s summertime, and the livin’s easy…” It seems like forever since I’ve had the time and the inclination to post. Nine days! It must be summer. Up until Saturday at 2:00 pm, it was all about CTEL. I finished the kids’ research papers early this year, and actually had time to (mostly) read the book […]

CLAD, CTEL, Me, Teaching

CTEL H-E-Double Toothpicks

mrC

This week and next, while beauty by definition, are going to be a bit more hectic than usual. I am plowing through research papers. (I caught my first big plagiarist of the year – he took one of the free samples from one of those research paper mills on the net. He used to have […]